This week, six people I know announced they’d tested positive for Covid-19. A few are sick, some are asymptomatic (a word in daliy use now). One of the blessings of Zoom is that some of these covid-positive friends were able to join about 200 other participants on my October 21  Zoom book launch with WBEZ’ Monica Eng. Another blessing? Friends from far afield who wouldn’t have been able to come to Chicago for a book launch party, zoomed in too. 

And then there’s people from long ago. Matt Person and I lost contact over thirty years ago. Here’s the message he sent via Facebook Messenger:

Hi Regan,  I’m the (Gary Hart) Road Warrior from Cape Cod who said yay Missouri and Indiana yesterday! Thanks for your stories and the awesome interview. We met in St Louis (in’84) and you were a mentor to our group, (Marc) Dann, (Pete) Giangreco. We then all headed to wonderful Indiana where Janet Reed and I worked in Jeffersonville. I returned home to Cape Cod. A decade later I became chef at the US Embassy in Reykjavik for a year. I’m sending you a hug from my partner Jill and myself, with appreciation! Such important experiences, ‘84, ’88. Good and challenging times! Best, Matt

Over on Amazon, a stranger, “Uptown Girl” buried her book review in a reply to a previous Customer Review: 

While sex, drugs, and rock & roll are the salt, pepper & salsa of Regan’s delightful book, the constant is her life-long history in politics. I—like everyone—was shocked that Hillary lost in the last election—man, she took some hits, so it warmed my heart when Regan wrote: “I never failed to be completely starstruck by her brilliance, kindness, and sense of humor. She listened to people’s problems and laughed at their jokes” (p. 231). I was not surprised with her other description of Bill and Hillary together: “Hillary Clinton [dressed in a grey tweed suit and black high-heeled feet] is not the kind of woman who knows if there are leftovers in the fridge.” In blue jeans, Bill jumped to his feet, invited the group into the kitchen, and started pulling food from cabinets and containers. (p. 178). I needed to hear all of that. But what wormed its way into my heart and mind was that Regan never lost her faith in God. A god that could take her in—warts, addictions, and bad men. She writes: “I call myself a Christian. I love the same Jesus whose friendship saved me when I was a child. I trust that my despair, my depression, my addictions and my character flaws don’t change the universal goodness of God” (p. 229). Amen, sister. Thank you. I await your sequel. – Uptown Girl

The notes, comments, snaps, yowls and yowzas from these and others about my book are more nurturing than any I’ve received in all the hours I’ve been alive. The words, your words, nourish my spirit. They teach me to feed love and kindness to others—a virtue perpetually under construction in the daily restoration of my soul.

Thank you.

Order “In That Number” at ReganBurke.com